Giliana Canales

Gili is from Edinburg, Texas located in the Rio Grande Valley. Gili graduated in May 2021 from Baylor University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and a minor in Legal Reasoning and Analysis. During her time at Baylor, she competed on the Baylor Mock Trial team and the Baylor Moot Court team. Based on her success and experience with her undergraduate advocacy, Gili was awarded the Leon Jaworski Scholarship to attend Baylor Law School. After her first year in law school, Gili and her partner, Kris Ruiz, competed at the Texas Young Lawyer’s Moot Court Competition in Houston, Texas.  Gili and Kris advanced to the final round of the competition where they had the opportunity to argue their case in front of the Texas Supreme Court and achieved first place. A few months later, Gili was a competitor at the National Pre-Trial Competition hosted by Stetson Law School in Gulfport, Florida. At Stetson, she and her team advanced all the way to the final round where Gili and her co-counsel, Michael Tagliabue, won first place. A year later, while participating in the rigorous practice court program at Baylor law, she attended the National Flash Trial Competition hosted by Berkley Law School in San Francisco, California, where her and her partner, Gage Jones, advanced all the way to the final round and took home second place.

Gili’s work experience prior to becoming the Practice Court Associate for the Practice Court Program has began in 2018. She worked as a tax clerk for Linebarger Goggan Blair and Sampson LLP, a national law firm which specializes in the collection of governmental receivables across the nation and primarily in Texas. In the summer of 2022, she clerked at Person Mohrer Morales Boddy Garcia & Gutierrez PLLC   firm in San Antonio, Texas where she focused on Oil and Gas Law representation on behalf of royalty owners across the state of Texas. During her last quarter of law school, Gili interned at the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office in their Misdemeanor Division.

 Gili enjoys various hobbies including cooking, singing and spending time with her family and friends. When she has time and can make the trip home, she loves to visit her grandparents and help her dad as a ranch hand. Gili is an aunt, a sister and a mother to a yorkie/schnauzer mix named Winston, who is more local than her given he was born and raised in Waco, Texas. Gili has always wanted to be a lawyer and specifically, a litigator because of her mom, Lucy, who she looks up to. Also, Gili is a Leo, so she found preparing this bio extremely easy.